I have twin daughters who both want to go on an excursion to Cairns helping out at in an Aboriginal Community which cost approx $1200-$1300 each. I thought if I could do a couple of fundraising activities, it would help out a great deal but I'm not sure if this is actually legal. Has anyone else had any experience or suggestions? TIA
Fundraising for a Personal Cause
Mary Poppins on 09/04/2017 - 18:47
Comments
Thanks greenpossum, I have actually started a gofundme page but I'm not certain how, why or if anyone outside our direct family would participate
You can do personal fundraising how ever you see fit cake stall etc… friends / family hold a garage sale or whatever you think of to produce the funds. We use the Bunnings sausage sizzle for a dog shelter I work with and on a good day make a few thousand dollars on a bad one $800-900 after cost of goods. Maybe you can approach your local store. If you have no Bunnings close by why not get your daughters to canvas local businesses for support.
I'm pretty certain Bunnings BBQs can only be booked by groups and organisations, not individuals. There's also an insane booking list for those BBQs.
That's true, but presumably the OP's daughters will be undertaking their community services project under the auspices of an external organisation. I've seen many organisations offering similar activities to high school students and they have recommended fundraising using the organisation name.
Kids at my school are currently raising funds for themselves to offset the costs associated with an international trip with a focus on community development (eg working with kids/making donations to a Sth East Asian orphanage and are doing this through a volunteer abroad type organisation.
https://www.fundingcentre.com.au/help/fundraising-legislatio…
Regulations depend on your state. I assume you're still Victoria?
Asking people for money isn't illegal.
If you approach your shire council they are usually good for a donation for this sort of thing - also Lions and Rotary are usually happy to support this sort of venture.
While there isn't anything legally wrong with doing so, I have to question the principle of asking the public to pay for discretionary items.
I could understand using gofundme for a life saving operation that can only be done in the USA and not covered by Medicare, but for an excursion?
Whatever happened to parents funding their own children's extra-curricular activities or not doing them at all?
I agree. This is totally legal for OP but he will likely get a lot of flak from people (whether to his/her face or behind his/her back).
Charity excursions are a lot more about the people paying to go somewhere to 'help', rather than the people that actually need helping. If you're not skilled in a trade/labour that the community needs, then financial contributions are the best thing to send. These don't tend to come with the warm fuzzies though.
Regardless of whether one is going to help at an Aboriginal Community or going for fun, it remains discretionary.
To me a discretionary item is something I will buy if I have the money for it, if not I will miss out or save now to buy later. The OP even has the option of using credit. But somehow is become to norm to go out cap-in-hand for many non-essential things these days.
It's totally acceptable to fundraise for a volunteer trip as you've described.
I went on a volunteering-based holiday and fundraised a bit through chocolate sales (you can just order them yourself, typically you pay half the selling price per box in advance and keep everything you make).
Eg: https://www.fundraising.com.au/orderI also sent a letter to my state's CWA (Country Woman's Association) telling them about my trip and they sent me a cheque for like $250. I didn't live in the country or anything, they just give money to females doing good things :)
Thanks Biance ;-)
You could try to get it crowdfunded. Do a search for sites for that. Pozible is one I know of.